


aut vincere aut mori

by Private_Applesauce



Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Gen, Mentions of Violence, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, lepuepue, werefolks au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 17:12:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7766380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Private_Applesauce/pseuds/Private_Applesauce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>Werefolks </em>were not exactly an everyday occurrence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	aut vincere aut mori

**Manhattan, New York**  
_a.d. iiii nonas septembres mmxvi_

Benjamin closes his eyes, inhaling sharply. Then he snaps them open to look around. The city is ghastly paler than he remembered. It was as if every buzz and flash of the cities shadows was infinitely lighter than before; lighter but not bright. Not even the city lights had made the night any better, darkness still lingered in the neon lights. He feels his heart drop realizing he had lost what he had been chasing—or if he was in fact chasing something actual rather than his raw imagining. 

He was chasing nothing. 

Shoving his hands in his pocket, Benjamin turned to his heel. The night was young; too young for him to be wasting it in selfish picturesque of fabricated memories. He lets his breath fog on his lips as he starts to trudge back into the smokey city. He can almost smell the lies, and vileness of it. There are no stars over the city; they were all dead.  
And he belonged here, no matter what he did. 

_‘Benjie.’_

He ignores the voice in his head, and instead thinks of growing up; actually growing up. The city can only shelter a child for so long. He has to think. He has to grow up. He has to take responsibility.

‘Samie _needs you_.’ He stops in his tracks, the voice fading as soon as it came. The white noise of the crowd fills his senses quickly. He turns vigilant. He hadn’t heard the voices in his head call his sister Samie. But he remembers someone who does. He could feel the freshness of the memory plucked from the back of his head. He knows someone who does.

 _‘I can only hold them for so long. Listen to me.’_ Her voice is hard to catch, not with so many people bumping against him while he walks against the crowd and back to where he had been lurking earlier. He had heard her there clearer. She was there. 

Maybe.

He stands still looking around. “Where?” he rasps. The crowd dimming away, buzzing sounds becoming white noise. She isn’t here. He turns sharply to his side feeling darkness crawling against his skin from his peripheral. But there is nothing but vehicles beeping angrily at each other. 

Then he feels fear clutch against his chest like he had never felt before. A scream. Benjamin is up on his toes running. God, he doesn’t know where he was going. Where? That scream was Sam’s voice. He feels the cold wind stinging against his eyes, as he jumps over an angry vehicle’s hood that of which had almost ran over him. He is crossing streets he had ever been so familiar with. 

And he is just running.

Benjamin had always been able to empathize with animals. He had always been able to hear their voices; tiny or deep as it may be. He could sometimes see what they see; hear what they hear; feel what they feel. And sometimes it’s most horrible.  
Especially when nobody believes you.

Sam had shared the same gift. But unlike him, she kept to herself. She had never told anyone aside from him that she could as well. While their parents were convinced that Benjamin was going through some issues with attention, Sam kept her lips tight. It had initially frustrated him to the point he left home. 

But those were nothing but things in the past. When his old man died and their mother far away, nothing was left of him but Sam. He had to grow up. And he did, leaving all the voices in his head tucked away as a fabricated memory of a child in need of attention. It wasn’t like anything of those still mattered. Sam had always told him anyways, ‘ _It doesn’t matter if they don’t believe you; I believe you and nobody could tell me otherwise._ ’

Benjamin sees it clearly now, through blood red eyes: Samantha is in a corner two beasts in front of her. A barricade. They’re protecting her. They are baring their teeth at two dark figures. There’s a man on the floor bleeding away his life. There’s ruby red glimmering on the narrow snout of the dark furred beast under the dimly lit alley. There’s a growl, and Benjamin can hear curses but it fades at the dark wolf releases another visceral drawl. The one with the dark fur was closest to Sam; it was impossibly too big for a wolf, and even more so than a Coyote which it seemed to be. 

The other is much smaller, with light fur that seemed to glow in the shadows. He can see it clearly, with red eyes and similar aggressive posture. Something shines on the ground under the beast’s paw. It’s a gun. He looks up to the beast; it’s the one with red eyes is small but fierce and aggressive—then its eyes snap on his. 

_‘Hurry.’_

Benjamin jolts up, sweating bullets. He had that dream over, and over, and over again. He turns to the space beside him all too harshly that he feels he had sprained his body in the speed of his movement. But it was alright, Sam was there beside him. Eyes heavy from sleep, watching him curiously; he must have woken her up. He tries to give her a reassuring smile, but he ends up grabbing her wrist instead. He finds himself curling up against her trying to act sane. 

But it rains. It begins to rain over Sam’s shoulder. He doesn’t know what he would do without her. She was the only one left of what used to be his family. 

He _can’t_ lose her too. 

“I heard her _too_ ,” she tells him seemingly knowing. “I heard them.”

He lets a certain degree of reassurance warm him. Sam meant 

Benjamin wakes up the next day, fighting the headache that is ringing over his head. Sam was probably in the kitchen from the smell of it.

**Author's Note:**

> — _i had to share my pain._


End file.
